Startup directory: seed with dmoz or allow recips

[wheel]

I'm creating a niche directory of vendors by state/city. I plan on creating my very initial seed of vendors by crawling my own customer base but I think I'll want larger than that.

What are my best options to get a decent amount of info to seed the database with:
- allow free basic listings in return for a reciprocal link?
- scrape info from dmoz or comb the web and handbuild my listings
- some other way?

[ska_demon]

I have just started to create a directory.

I am going to offer free listings in exchange for recip links initially and then give the opportunity to upgrade to a sponsored listing for a small fee after say 6 months of being in the directory.

I will also scour the web for suitable candidates and manually add them to the database. Follow up with an email telling them what I have done and ask for a link back.

Its all new to me but I think this would be one way of filling the directory with useful stuff before going live.

Ska

[bears5122]

What about just offering free submissions with no recipricol for a couple months. Be picky on who you take, make the directory sharp and full of content, then start charging or asking for recipricol links.

No offense to recipricol link directories, but they are typically filled with garbage sites and kill the integrity of the directory.

I'd also suggest filling the directory yourself with quality links you like.

[ska_demon]

Heh Heh! I have been filling it with links I like. So far most of them are my aff links. I have decided to give free listings to everyone for ever. Recip links will get higher priority over non recip. Sponsored links are my own. I get to approve/reject all submitted links so the quality will remain high hopefully.

Ska